It has been recognized that firefighters need to find the location of a fire or fires in a region of an involved building as quickly as possible after they arrive at a building. Many fire departments assume that if a fire has not been actively fought within 20 minutes of is inception, the building cannot be saved. Significant amounts of time can be spent trying to find the origin of the fire, even when it is evident that there is a fire.
A variety of circumstances can mask the origin as well as the current location of the fire. For example, multiple smoke alarms can be activated which may appear as a possible fire. A sprinkler system flow switch can be activated which many appear as a probable indication of fire. A fire department may arrive at the building and see visible signs such as people evacuating, smoke, or flames.
Unfortunately, these signs may not give a good indication of where the fire is. Active smoke alarms are an indication of the location of smoke. However, the smoke may have traveled some distance from the fire. Sprinkler heads that are flowing are very often close to the actual fire. However, it may not be possible to locate the exact position of active sprinklers due to the conditions in the involved region or building.
One method of finding fires that firefighters use is to listen for the fire. Fires emit characteristic sounds that can be recognized. Locating the characteristic sounds of a fire will usually locate the fire.
Beyond fire location, there is a need to monitor the location of fire fighting personnel in the region. Knowing their location is very important throughout a fire fighting effort. Location information is critical to effecting a rescue if they get in trouble. However, firefighters often cannot easily be located once they enter a building. Many buildings have areas where radio communication with personnel is impossible. Even if they can maintain radio communication, firefighters are often not aware of their location or cannot accurately describe their location.
The location of civilians in an involved building is important and is often not known. In this regard, firefighters often do not know whether they are trapped. Civilians are usually not issued special safety equipment before an emergency to protect them in an emergency.
There continues to be an on-going need for systems and methods usable to monitor, on at least an intermittent basis, the locations of firefighters and victims in fires, explosions, and other emergencies as well as to locate and diagnose fires. Preferably such systems and methods would also be compatible with existing, installed monitoring systems.